Manikins are frequently used as aids in teaching cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Students can practice and learn the proper techniques of chest massage and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation (MMR) without risk of harm to a live patient. It is important that these manikins simulate human appearance as closely as possible so that the students will be conditioned to act appropriately in a real life situation. Often the provision of verisimilitude requires the installation of complex and expensive instrumentation within the manikin.
In the CPR practice sessions, typically many students and instructors will take turns using the manikin and each will deposit germs from mouth-to-mouth breathing, not only on the manikin surface, but into the manikin itself, when the manikin has nose or mouth openings comprising a portion of a simulated respiratory tract. These germs may be inhaled by the next user and constitute a health problem. Antiseptic wipes will only remove the germs on the surface and will not clean the interior. Disassembling the manikin to remove and clean an interior respiratory tract is time consuming and may prove to be extremely difficult when the manikin construction is complex.
It is an object of this invention to provide a new and improved training manikin with a cleaning system that can easily be employed to clean thoroughly both the surface and the face and inside the nose and mouth openings after each use, without requiring the manikin to be disassembled or interfering with the simulation devices also inside the manikin.
It is another object of this invention to provide simplified but realistic simulation devices for cardiac, pulmonary and pulse systems, with instant readout of signal light and/or audio signal indicators.
It is another object of this invention to provide these simulation devices in a manikin the size, shape, and weight of a newborn or premature baby.
Training manikins in the past have provided systems simulating the heart, e.g. Clark U.S. Pat. No. 3,568,333, the lungs, e.g. Baerman U.S. Pat. No. 3,562,924, both the head and lungs, e.g. Smrcka U.S. Pat. No. 3,872,609, or the pulse, e.g. Gordon U.S. Pat. No. 3,947,974. None of these provides an easy to use and effective cleaning system, and none solves the problem of effectively, operatively housing all the simulated organ systems in a manikin the size of a newborn baby.